The St Marys Police Department consists of a Police Chief, a Captain, three patrol officers, five part-time officers, and one reserve officer. The Department provides year-round 24/7 coverage and is charged with enforcing both state law and city ordinances. Primary duties include patrolling the city to deter crime, monitoring vehicular traffic, investigating accidents, robberies, burglaries, civil disturbances, abuse of drugs, missing children, and domestic disputes.

The State requires all full-time and part-time police officers to be certified. Certification for full-time officers (full-time qualified) is obtained through the completion of a 16-week training course offered by the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (or equivalent training approved by the Kansas Commission on Police Officers Standards). Certification for part-time officers (part-time qualified) is obtained through the completion of a 2-week training course from either of the aforementioned entities. Reserve police officers are not certified by the state, but attend a reserve officer’s training course and only work under the supervision of a state certified officer.

Certified officers must annually qualify with their duty weapon and complete at least 40 hours of continuing education to remain certified. All officers are trained in First Aid/ Automated External Defibrillator (AED), pepper spray, nightstick (ASP), TASER, and handcuffing procedures. Even though the KLETC training program is free to the city, the cost of training and equipping a full-time qualified officer during their first year is approximately $25,000 to $30,000.

The Department has three fully marked patrol vehicles, which are equipped with an in-car video system, radar, AED, radios, as well as other equipment. Vehicles are normally kept for six years, which leads to purchasing a new squad car every other year. (The Department has mutual aid agreements with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office, the Wamego Police Department, the Rossville Police Department, the Silver Lake Police Department, as well as with state and federal law enforcement agencies.)